Kitty

Kitty: You haven’t seen a cat marmalising a penguin before? I’m pretty sure you were trying to get your Daddy to sit up, alas to no avail, but your squeals of laughter and solid determination to make things go your way set the tone for one of my favourite ever Me and Mine photo shoots.

(Nikon D80, 35mm 1.8 lens – 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 100)

Elma: Halloween Princess Elma, complete with possibly the craziest wig we’ve acquired so far. You love this costume to distraction, you dress up at least once every day, and for the last week this has even trumped the Cinderella dress with butterflies on the skirt; well it is pink! I just hope it fits next year because it’s going to be hard to find something you love more.

(Nikon D80, 35mm 1.8 lens – 1/100, f/5.6, ISO 100)

Pip: the world’s smiliest pirate, complete with genuinely accidental fake pirate scar after being just that bit too interested in something your sister was drawing.

Kitty: Watching the three of you hanging out together this half term it’s noticeable how effortlessly you are the ringleader in all plans both parent-approved and otherwise. This first half of term at school has given you courage and confidence and you are thriving. Striding out along the path you were completely in your element, and very keen to get pond dipping even if it isn’t exactly the time of year for it.

(Nikon D80, 35mm 1.8 lens – 1/100, f/2.8, ISO 100)

Elma: Another one who couldn’t wait to get to the pond dipping. Even if the net was taller than you, and leaves the only thing on the water today you had your pink jacket and your bug box and the water trays and you were going to pond dip until there was nothing left to dip.

(Nikon D80, 35mm 1.8 lens – 1/125, f/3.5, ISO 125)

Pip: And speaking of pond dipping … where the girls lead, you happily follow – and your collection of lake leaves was very impressive!

Kitty: We had a skip delivered this week which now contains huge amounts of broken fence panels, a garden seat that we took down to make room for your playhouse, and not a little bit of extraneous clutter. The day it was delivered you were just about bouncing off the walls with excitement; it was the most entertaining part of your half term thus far, and so you asked to have your photo taken in front of it. Well why not!

(Nikon D80, 35mm 1.8 lens – 1/400, f/3.2, ISO 200)

Elma: never has a skip been quite so photographed, or two little girls so thrilled to see it arrive!

(Nikon D80, 35mm 1.8 lens – 1/160, f/3.2, ISO 200)

Pip: My champion monkey rascal; you were mildly interested in the skip, and a lot more interesting in pulling funny faces at all and sundry!

It’s been one of those weeks when I’ve spent more time attached to my laptop than with the family, when I got to Friday and couldn’t remember the last time I’d taken time just for me, and not been parenting, working, or crashed out asleep. I forced myself to leave the laptop at work over the weekend and it wasn’t until at least half way down the G&T at my colleague’s leaving drinks that I stopped twitching about its absence.

I’ve been thinking a bit this week about my ordinary moments. Prompted a little by wondering what to write about this week, given that the weather has been grey and the dark has closed in around either end of my working day and I’m back in those months of very limited photo ops, and in part prompted by writing my Me and Mine post for September. Even though our photos were taken in our garden, on the at that stage unfinished playhouse, with a slide and a rather muddy looking paddling pool probably visible in the background, I loved them for what they represented, the joy in just being together as a five, and time that we’d had to fight for agains the competing calls of work and actually getting even a teeny tiny bit of sleep.

When push came to shove and I had to consider what was motivating me to bribe and corrupt a slightly unwilling and under the weather family to haul themselves outside, it was the yearning to record us, just us, just how we are, in the simplest possible way; the moments that feel like they are our everyday ordinary. Kitty practicing her jumping on and off the swing as taught by a new school friend; the way that Elma looks when she spots you peeking around the corner, or Pip and his constant and never-ending love for all things sport.

Except they’re not my ordinary moments. Not really. And neither are most of my pictures that I share here as part of the series of ordinary moments. If you wanted a picture of my ordinary moments, how I spend most of my time, most days of the week, it would be me at work with laptop, me on the train with laptop, me on the train telling someone that the train is late, me on the train home trying to stay awake, and me at home with the laptop. Now I like my job, don’t get me wrong, but it mostly involves me sitting at a nice brown desk doing my job, and occasionally falling over our nice blue files which blend in perfectly with our nice blue carpet tiles. Photogenic it is not.

I love and treasure every moment that I get to be parenting, and the truth is that the moments I share each week are the highlights of my week; the time I have snatched back from the busyness of the everyday to make sure that what I cannot give my children in quantity, we make up for in quantity. Perhaps they are everyday in the sense that they are rarely extraordinary (exceptions for MADs finals and meeting an Olympic Medal and its owner; neither of which will ever be anything but exceptional), just tiny snippets of family life, but few of them are truly everyday, at least not for me.

I see pictures and videos of what they’ve all been up to, and I hear from the girls about school and nursery, and from Pip about hockey, and when I work at home I can hear them all pottering about the house, and in an ideal world I would of course be both entirely present with them and able to feed, clothe and house them, but that’s unrealistic even by my standards of optimism.

This week’s highlight was spending some time sitting in the garden in the sunshine while all three little ones closeted themselves away in their playhouse with a packet of felt tip pens and a worrying aura of silence; cue lots of very colourful legs and tummies. We played hockey, the littlest two dug in the mud for a bit, and Kitty pulled a chair over next to me and cuddled up while we read Penguin and You Can’t Take an Elephant on the Bus. We didn’t go out anywhere, we didn’t really do anything special, even the promised plans to make ginger cookies were shelved because we ran out of time to both make them, and wash the mud/glue/felt tip off Pip before supper.

John came home while all three of them were making the most spectacular racket in the bath; the sort that has water all over the floor and up the walls. Kitty was singing Jingle Bells at full volume, Elma appeared to be eating the bubbles, and Pip was doing the biggest kicks he could manage and babbling with glee at the same time and it was a while before we noticed his head poked around the door. The kids shouted “DADDY!!” as one, and he had to duck back around the corner to avoid the volley of water that followed.

Some of my absolute all time favourite photos from the Siblings project are the pictures taken at the same place each year. We take these pictures to record and notice the changes in our children month on month, and it’s lovely to look back over a year and see what a difference each month has made, but it’s the ones taken in the same place that really ram it home how fast they’re growing.

One of our favourite parks has a big saucer swing; it’s been the perfect thing for rocking little tiny babies too little to sit up in the big swing, and now it’s just right for three big kids who all want pushing at the same time when even the two toddler swings are too far apart for me to push both at the same time, let alone reach around the corner Mr Tickle style to push Kitty as well.

The last set of pictures from this swing were from November, so it’s not exactly a full year ago, but wow what a difference 11 months has made. Gone is my teeny tiny little baby, just starting to walk, and looking so little next to his sisters, and in his place is my blond fluffy-haired boy, giggling at the girls as they swoop back and forwards, and fixing me with a very stern expression if I should even suggest that anyone might want to get down.

He’s grown through the wellies that Elma was wearing in the November pictures and into the ones she only just handed down now, luckily he thinks pink waterproof trousers and purple Cinderella wellies are the height of toddler aspirations.

The littlest two snuggled in together while Kitty was doing her best Tarzan impression around the rest of the playground, to the point that I thought they might almost fall asleep.

Kitty had some other ideas though; she’s tall enough now that her knees hang over the edge and she can get the saucer swinging higher and higher by herself.

However much these little siblings of hers can wind her up and run off with her Lego, she loves them as only a big sister can (equal parts adoration and button pushing). She can make them giggle like they’ll never stop, and have them chasing each other around the house in a heartbeat.

And Elma, my little middle girl; she is the glue that keeps that trio together; big enough to follow along with Kitty’s plans for make believe, and little enough to be Pip’s very best friend and still play at the level that he can keep up with, even if he does still rugby tackle her to the floor half the time he tries to give her a hug.

The older they get, the more we’re moving out of the baby stage; we can go out without the buggy or a sling if we’re not going too far, and much as I loved the little baby stage, it is so much fun to see them now as they become more and more independent and more and more their own little gang of three,

Two little sisters and their brother too, in October:

Do go and say hi to my lovely cohosts; Lucy at Dear Beautiful, Katie at Mummy Daddy Me, Amber at Goblin Child, and Keri-Anne at Gingerlilly Tea; and to show us your sibling photos just link up below or come and play on Instagram under the #siblingsproject and tag @siblings_project_

Space for the Butterflies is…

A story of motherhood from a slightly hippy working mama who couldn't stop writing if she tried. It's my creativity, set out in fabric, yarn, and cake, our family memories and adventures and all the evidence you need that photography is addictive.
Hi, I'm Carie, welcome to the story so far...